


Between Heaven and Earth

by Tarlan



Series: Dark Gift [4]
Category: The Magnificent Seven (TV), Vampire Chronicles - Anne Rice
Genre: Angst, Crossover, M/M, Vampire Turning, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-12-25
Updated: 2004-12-25
Packaged: 2017-10-19 17:33:28
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/203379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tarlan/pseuds/Tarlan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Josiah's story of how he became a vampire</p>
            </blockquote>





	Between Heaven and Earth

With one last yell of anger towards an uncaring deity, Josiah slumped to the dark, dusty street in Vista City, his energy almost spent as he wept. The bottle of whiskey fell from his numbed hand, the remnants pouring away unnoticed, sucked into the thirsty ground. No one came to his side offering support or compassion though a few stared at him from hidden places, or took a wide berth around his grief-stricken, drunken form.

As the last of his cries faded to dry sobs, Josiah felt the approach of another. He looked up, face twisted into a belligerent mask of grief and anger, prepared to rage at this person who dared to intrude upon his sorrow. Instead, his eyes opened wide in shock as the young man knelt before him and reached for his hands.

Josiah felt the cold touch of flesh but it didn't register within his whiskey-fogged mind. All he could feel was the comfort of this presence that he had thought lost to him.

"Vin?"

Vin smiled softly, wryly; his eyes holding more sorrow than Josiah had ever seen in them before.

"She's dead, Vin." Josiah screwed his eyes closed and turned away from his friend as fresh tears burned his eyes once more. "All my fault," he mumbled roughly. "Should have taken better care of her. Should have known she'd... Oh Lord, Vin." He looked back into the gentle, compassionate eyes. "I should have been there for her in her hour of need. All my fault."

"No, Josiah. If you got to blame someone then blame your father. You did your best by her."

Josiah felt Vin sit down beside him and pull him into his strong embrace, holding him tight to the slighter body with a strength he'd never suspected from the smaller frame. He felt Vin's soft cheek skin against his own stubbled cheek, felt soothing fingers card through his hair. He sighed raggedly, still wracked by dry sobs as firm lips bestowed a soft kiss upon his cheek.

Josiah thought he'd already wrung every tear out of his body but Vin's compassion swept over him, dredging up more from the depths of his soul. He had no idea how long Vin sat there with him, accepting his grief with all the tenderness and friendship he had shown from the first day they met. He thought he might even have fallen asleep for a while as the grief and whiskey overwhelmed him, taking the last of his strength. He had lost all sense of time since reaching this dusty town that pretended to be a city, and finding Hannah already dead by her own hand, but the streets felt colder and darker than before, as if all the world had gone to bed hours ago.

_She had seemed so much calmer recently that we didn't watch her so closely._

The Sister had still been in shock at discovering Josiah's sister hanging in her small room. Hannah had twisted the bed linen to form a rope, and so ended her earthly torment before the disease eating her up inside could finish her off. Silently, he cursed the strict, unloving father who had driven his sister into seeking love wherever she could find it. Her promiscuity had left her vulnerable to Syphilis; the disease slowly sending her insane as she spiraled towards death.

All these years though, he had worked his Penance, hoping that God would forgive him for deserting her, and would perform a miracle and save her. Now it was too late. She was gone, and he knew not where. Heaven, hell or some place in between.

_I'll never be free and clear._

Prophetic words spoken to Vin in the past came flooding back, and he buried his head against the soft buckskin coat as he thought back to all the times they had spoken of Hannah since that day. Saying it out loud had made it a little easier to bear, and Vin had made a promise to go with him next time... and then he disappeared along with Chris. But Vin had been right about one thing. He wasn't solely to blame for his sister's descent into hell.

Josiah pulled back from the comforting embrace, sobered by the catharsis of his grief as he--finally--accepted the truth. He had been as much a victim of his father's abuse as his sister except that he had been able to walk away--or had he? He had spent his entire life trying to prove his father wrong, that there was more between heaven and earth than just his father's narrow-minded view. He'd even joined the priesthood for a time, hoping to find the truth he sought there, but to no avail. His wanderings had taken him far and wide, seeking answers from holy men, no matter what God they prayed to.

In truth, he had never had any place he could call home until he met six men in a dusty frontier town and decided his path lay with them for a time. Josiah looked at Vin, barely able to see him under the moonless night sky with his face cast only in starlight and shadows.

"Figured you forgot your promise, Vin."

"Don't make promises I ain't gonna keep. Just took till now to get here."

Vin stood swiftly, gracefully, as if he had not sat like a statue upon the cold ground for maybe hours, and he offered a hand down to Josiah. Josiah took the hand, surprised once more by the strength in the arm that raised him so easily to his unsteady feet.

"Let's go inside." Vin indicated towards the small cantina.

Josiah nodded and allowed Vin to lead him back inside the empty place. They settled in a darkened corner and Josiah could not help but stare as the weak oil lamp cast a sickly orange glow upon Vin's deathly pale flesh. And yet, Vin looked more alive and more beautiful to him now than he had the last time he saw the younger man in daylight.

His thoughts journeyed back almost eight months to that last evening in the saloon when they had all been gathered together--his family, or so he thought at the time. Vin had looked the same then as he did now, with his eyes glowing with an inner light, his skin as smooth and pale as alabaster, and his hair falling in gentle glossy light brown waves to his surprisingly broad shoulders. He even wore the same red shirt and pale pink bandanna that was always a favorite with him. Josiah liked that shirt too, liked the way it made Vin's eyes a deeper shade of blue, reminding him of the Pacific Ocean. Such a beautiful man.

That last evening had been one of the best he could ever remember, filled with friendship and with... love. He recalled only one moment of bitterness that disappeared just as quickly, quashed by joy, and that was when he realized how easy Vin and Chris were with each other that night. He recalled the soft looks that passed between them, the tenderness, the unconscious way they touched, fancying that he saw a spark between them every time they brushed together. And Chris had looked so different that night. Though it was most likely a trick of the light, the years of grief and pain that had seemed etched into his face had disappeared, leaving a man who looked ten years younger.

The bitterness had come when Josiah realised why they looked so beautiful together. He knew they had finally finished the courtship dance started all those years before, and had consummated their love. And he had envied them. He had envied Chris for having and holding the strong, gentle, quick-minded and beautiful man who now sat opposite.

They had gone by the following morning, and no one had heard from them since.

Nothing had been the same after they left, as if the heart and soul of their group had been ripped away leaving the rest of the body slowly dying. Buck had stayed only a few weeks but Josiah had seen the way his eyes constantly crept to the distant horizon, so he had not been surprised when Buck rode out one day with all his possessions packed onto that big gray. Nathan, Ezra and JD still remained in the town but Nathan had confided in him only a few days earlier, letting him know his intention of going back to the Seminole village to marry Rain before the week was out. A new doctor arriving in the town had made his healing skills redundant, whereas he knew the village could make use of those skills.

The months had passed, drawing closer to the time of year when he made his regular trip to Vista City. Josiah recalled waiting in vain for Vin to return and keep his promise, and then he set off for Vista City alone--wanting to be with Hannah on her birthday.

Tears welled in his eyes once more as his thoughts circled back to Hannah, his beloved sister. Ashamed to be seen crying again, Josiah hid his face in his hands, breath hitching as he felt Vin's cold hands cover his, their fingers entwining. He wasn't sure how long he quietly sobbed but those fingers never loosened their hold.

"She's at peace now, Josiah."

"She's in Hell, Vin. She took her own life."

"Maybe God won't see it that way. Maybe he'll see she weren't thinking straight. That she was sick."

"I hate him."

"I don't, though I guess he's no cause to love me."

Josiah looked across at Vin in confusion. "He's got every reason to love you, Vin, just like I do."

With shock, Josiah realised what he had said. He tried to move away from the gentle hands that still held his, appalled by his own admission of love for Vin, afraid of seeing anger--or worse--pity in those crystal clear blue eyes, but Vin would not let him go. Josiah raised his eyes, fearing the worst and found a gentle smile playing about the soft lips he remembered so well.

Vin leaned forward, his movement almost a blur, but there was no mistaking his intention as those soft lips pressed against his. Josiah felt a tingle of pleasure race through him and he moaned softly in regret as Vin pulled back, then in concern as he thought about the man who meant everything to Vin.

"Chris--?"

"Knows."

Josiah frowned, wondering how Chris could know what had just happened between them, and then it occurred to him that Chris was still riding with Vin. So why had Vin come to him alone?

"Where is he?"

"Around here some place... with Buck."

Josiah nodded, unsurprised that Buck should have found Chris, and then realised that Chris must have deliberately stayed at a distance, allowing Josiah the chance to share his burden of grief with the man he loved--with Vin.

Vin smiled warmly, as if capturing that thought, and Josiah found his own thoughts turning to the past.

"Why did you leave?"

"Because we couldn't stay."

His reply was so soft--wistful--and Josiah could tell that he had hated to leave the place they had all started to call home. He shook his head, unable to think of any reason why they had to leave... unless more bounty hunters had caught up with Vin.

"No. Weren't no bounty hunters. Ain't got to fear them no more." Josiah blinked, shaking his head as he wondered if he had spoken out loud. "We ain't what you think we are anymore. Chris and me... and Buck. We're... different now."

Vin smiled widely, revealing the sharp incisors, and everything fell into place. The cold skin, the pale complexion, the unnatural strength and swiftness of movement. Josiah pulled back sharply, recalling old tales of foul creatures that stalked through the night, drinking the blood of the living in order to survive.

"Lord, no!"

"Lord didn't have nothing to do with it, Josiah. And I ain't sorry it happened. Got most everything I ever wanted now, and an eternity to enjoy it to the fullest."

Josiah made a sign of the cross and mumbled a small prayer, horrified that this man he loved had found such a terrible fate yet, instead of seeing fear in Vin's eyes, all he saw was gentle laughter. Everything he knew of these night creatures was unholy. They were evil incarnate. They were soulless killers, shunned by God and feared by man... and they had no loyalty to the living, seeing them only as their next meal. His hand crept to his throat, remembering an old Chinaman talking of throats torn out as these godforsaken creatures callously drank from their victim and then cast the drained corpse aside.

"Why are you here, Vin?"

"To keep a promise... and to offer you a chance to come with us. Be one of us."

"Lord have mercy--"

"Didn't you ever wonder what it'd be like. Never to grow old, or get sick. To be with the ones you care about. The ones you love... forever."

"Heaven--"

"Is gonna be a lonely place, Josiah." Vin smiled softly. "Ain't all true what they say about our kind. Yeah, we need fresh blood to live, but we don't need to feed that often, and we don't take none excepting those that deserve to die."

"No one deserves to die, Vin."

"Don't they? Murderers of men, women and kids... men who like to torture and defile others. Same kind of scum we all used to kill before without any bad feeling. Ain't much different now."

"It's a lot different. God--"

"--Damned us all long before we got turned." Vin took a deep breath and let it out as a long sigh. "Reckon he's just too ornery to accept that we ain't all bad." He stared hard at Josiah and then his eyes shifted towards the door. "Only thing I miss is the sun rising over the desert, but I figure that's a small price to pay for the gift I got in return."

Josiah saw a look pass across Vin's face that could never belong to the soulless creatures of folklore. It was the purest form of love, lighting his features, glowing in his eyes. He looked over to where Vin stared and saw Chris leaning against the wall looking as young and handsome as he had that last night in the saloon. A soft, lazy smile lighted features that had often seemed so sad to Josiah, and he could see the depth of love shining back at Vin.

Josiah felt a smile curve on his own lips. Where he had always differed from his father was in his belief that pure love in any form was sacred, be it the love of a man for a woman, or a man for another man. He saw that love now, reflected in green and blue eyes, and he saw that love reach out to encompass him too.

"All of us--mortal and Vampire--we've all got a mind. Always been the choices we made that made the difference between being good or bad, not the color of a man's skin, or the blood flowing through his veins."

Josiah looked deep into Vin's eyes, seeing the truth there, and then he looked to Chris. His heart began to beat wildly. Armed with the knowledge that nothing so pure could be all evil, he knew that what Vin offered was not the terrible fate that he might have once believed, and might even hold the truth he sought. He swallowed hard around a tongue thick with dehydration from the whiskey, and now from fear.

Chris walked towards them, his movements even more graceful and powerful than Josiah could recall. He sank down on the seat beside Vin and stared across the table, capturing Josiah with mesmerizing, fern green eyes that even the weak lamplight could not wash out. His flawless skin held a slight flush but any fear Josiah felt at facing two vampires faded swiftly. Mortal or Vampire, he knew neither of these men would ever hurt him, or take him without his consent. They were giving him the freedom to choose between a continuance of his mortal life, and the start of a new life as one of them.

Even though he knew God would damn him for all eternity for accepting, Josiah knew he had made that choice more than three years ago. He had made it when he left the tumbled down ruins of an old mission to follow them into certain death at the Seminole village, convinced then that it was his time by the crows settling around him. The crows had lied, and he had lived to find companionship and a sense of family with those men.

Josiah nodded, the fear leaving him as both men glowed with happiness. Josiah remembered something Vin had said, and it spurred one last request.

"I'd like to see the sunrise one last time, across the desert."

Josiah placed his own large hand over Chris's as it reached for him, and then they were gone, though Josiah knew they would return after sunset. With a trembling hand, he scrubbed at his face and then he left the cantina, wandering into the desert to find a perfect spot to watch the sunrise.

Less than an hour passed before he noticed the lightening of the sky in the east. The gray of the dawn slowly warmed through yellow and gold, painting the dark sky in shades of purple and then blue. He watched as the disk of the sun rose majestically from beneath the horizon, climbing slowly to stretch fingers of light across the land, chasing away the darkness. Josiah sighed, letting every sense reach out to imprint this moment upon his mind for all time, knowing he might never feel or see its like again.

Once the sun was fully above the horizon, Josiah pushed to his feet. He had one last day to walk beneath the sun, and to prepare for an eternity of night, and he wanted to look his best.

Uncaring that the local people would think him a mad gringo, he paid for a bathtub to be placed in the back courtyard and filled. Quickly, he sank into its heated depths and scrubbing away the layers of sweat and dirt from the long ride to Vista City, and from the solace he had taken from a whiskey bottle to ease his grief. While he bathed, his clothes were washed and dried, and then he found the only barber in this one-horse town and had his hair trimmed neat and his heavily stubbled cheeks scraped smooth.

He spent what was left of the day wandering around the town, soaking up memories in case all of this would be lost to him. Then he went back into the desert to watch the sunset on his final day of mortality, and waited for his family to come for him.

*****

Chris hung back as Vin stepped up close to Josiah, smiling at the start Josiah made when he realised they had arrived so silently behind him. Josiah looked around and saw him, and then his gaze fell upon Buck, a wide grin parting his lips as Chris felt Buck's arms wrap around his waist from behind, knowing it was in response to Buck's bright smile of greeting over his shoulder.

The arms tightened their grip, and Chris sighed, settling back against the broader man's chest as Buck nuzzled against his neck in a way that would have been so wrong only a few months ago, but now seemed so right. Vin was both his love and his life, but Buck was an integral part of them too. He had been his friend for so long that it had seemed so natural to offer him that friendship for all time after he had followed on behind and tracked them down.

Chris smiled; recalling Lestat's exasperation when Buck entered the saloon in that small Californian town. Lestat had made Vin to be a brother to Louis, hoping to appease his still disgruntled and grieving companion after the death of the child-vampire, Claudia. However, Vin had other ideas--other needs--and had pleaded with Lestat for the companion of his heart and soul to join him in the Dark Gift.

For such a soulless, amoral killer--as Louis described Lestat on more than one occasion--Lestat had heard Vin's pleas and gifted Vin with his heart's desire. And so Chris joined their small family the following night, waking at sunset to find he was lying in a cold, stone coffin wrapped in the arms of the man he had come to love more than life itself.

And now, here was Buck Wilmington, following after his oldest friend just as he had after Sarah and Adam died. How often had Chris turned around in some dirty, backwater town to see that big gray horse tethered close to his own? How often had he moved on without a word only to sense Buck following maybe a mile or so behind?

When Buck turned up in that small saloon Chris had not been surprised in the least, and neither had Vin. It seemed inevitable really. They belonged together, and as Chris looked across at Josiah, he knew that Josiah belonged with them too.

Josiah's attention had turned back to Vin, but Chris could hear his mortal thoughts and feel the great love he held for Vin. They were a strange pair; the highly educated preacher's son and the uneducated, part-Indian boy turned buffalo and bounty hunter. Yet, there had been an affinity between them, driven by their gentle natures and poet's heart, since the very beginning.

As he watched his eternal lover reach his hand down to Josiah and help him smoothly to his feet, Chris recalled the events of two nights ago.

****

Lestat had already drawn away in frustration, seeking a suitable preoccupation for the night in the form of a buxom lady. Chris saw Louis shaking his head in anger, and couldn't understand why Louis felt so aggrieved at the victim Lestat had chosen. Chris had seen inside her twisted mind. He had relived the deaths of the babies she'd carried, only wanted while inside her body so her clients were assured they would not father a child with her, and then callously smothered or drowned at birth. Her complete contempt for their small lives sickened him, and he hoped Lestat would feed well on those ample breasts that should have nurtured the baby buried only two days earlier.

He felt Vin's hand upon his arm and saw the sorrow in them as he shared part of what Chris had seen.

"Louis ain't got the same gift as you, Chris. He can't read Lestat 'cause he sired us, and he can't read that woman unless he's feeding on her. He don't know she's all bad."

"Maybe I ought to--"

Vin pressed two fingers against his lips and shook his head.

"That's for them to work out... and, hell, it'll give them something to do for the next century." Vin grinned softly, and then the smile slowly disappeared as Chris whispered the words, "Don't go."

"Made a promise, Chris, and I ain't about to break it just 'cause I'm dead."

Chris sighed and nodded, knowing that he would be the one to tell Lestat even though Vin was first born out of the two of them. He walked across the crowded saloon, ignoring the stares and lurid thoughts aimed at him. Silently, he wondered if this had always been the case or if there was something special about his vampire form that brought such incredibly lustful thoughts swimming through these mortals' minds.

 _Always been a balm for sore eyes,_ came a whisper inside his head, followed by a soft chuckle as Vin answered his unspoken question.

Chris shook his head, wondering how Vin would feel if he could read the lusty thoughts aimed at his perfect form, or see the images crowding in mortal minds of him and Vin writhing together naked for some mortal's pleasure. He shot off one of those images to Vin and saw him stiffen and then snigger at the idea of carrying out that scenario in private.

"Hooked up with a damn reprobate," Chris murmured as he approached Lestat. He watched the gray-blue eyes rise as he stopped beside him, seeing the heat of blood lust warming them as Lestat contemplated the delightful meal ahead of him.

"We're going to Vista City."

Lestat's smile froze, and then turned into a deep sigh of resignation. "The promise?" He looked back at Vin, and then to Buck--his grandchild. "I have certain precognitive powers, and I have a vision that I shall have another... grandchild... before the week is out, and five by the end of this decade."

Lestat kissed the lady's hand and stepped away from her with assurances that he would return within moments. He followed Chris back to the small group and Chris could sense him idly wondering where Louis had gone this night, though the sire-child bond prevented him from actually reading Lestat's thoughts. Lestat's hand reached out to cup Vin's chin.

"I understand... just. You are still so young, still fettered by the mortal life you cast off such a short time before. Keep your promise, Vin. I shall travel onwards to San Francisco to see this amazing city built on steep hills rolling towards a great ocean. Perhaps we shall meet there?"

And so they parted company with their sire, heading back towards the small town that gave birth to their friendship, and then veering off towards the Mexican border to the inappropriately named Vista City. By necessity, they could only travel by night, arriving to find Josiah already drunk with whiskey and grief.

Vin approached the Nunnery where he had found Hannah Sanchez that last time when desperate to prove Josiah innocent of murdering those young women. He pulled back, unable to enter the holy ground and called softly to the Sister. Chris's heart ached to see her recoil from Vin as if sensing his unearthly existence. She refused to pass him the information he sought but Chris read it from her mind, seeing the image of Hannah Sanchez hanging from the neck by a rope made out of a twisted sheet.

He let that image flow to Vin and saw the sorrow there, knowing Hannah was another mortal who would be barred from entering heaven by her act of suicide.

"He ain't got nothing left to tie him to this world. We're the only family he's got now."

Chris sighed, recalling Lestat's prophecy that another would join their family.

"I'll give him the choice--"

"No. I want to do this, Chris."

Chris shook his head, recalling how close he had come to losing Vin when he gave Buck the Dark Gift. Selfishly, he had wanted Vin to sire Buck so that he might enjoy the mental bond that would be stilled between sire and child. It had sounded so simple when they'd asked Louis about it; taking the blood until Buck's heart had almost stopped beating, and then letting him drink it back from Vin until Vin's heart had almost stopped. In reality, it had been a fearful experience, knowing that to do any less than touch death would result in Buck being created a monster.

****

That thought pulled him back to the present, and to the tight arms that held him to stop him racing forward too soon in his overwhelming fear for Vin. He watched as Vin gently disrobed Josiah, knowing from their gift to Buck that it would be better that way. He sighed, feeling Vin's pleasure as he kissed Josiah deeply, and hearing the echo of Josiah's thoughts and feelings as he held on tight to the man he had cherished for so long.

Chris felt no jealousy as Vin caressed Josiah but he was startled when Josiah pushed Vin away, his thoughts suddenly unreadable as if Josiah had drawn a shutter down over his mind. Chris tried to take a step forward but Buck held him tightly.

"Let it play out, Chris."

The shutter rose, and Chris gasped at the change in the still-mortal mind he read so easily. Lust for Vin had turned to a deeper, more abiding love, and he heard the words Josiah spoke echo through his entire being.

"I'll always love you, Vin... but you belong to Chris. You always did, and you always will. Won't stop me from loving you any less, but I do accept that love should be as... as family."

He offered his throat to Vin, and Chris felt even greater love for Josiah spread through their small family as Vin accepted the heart-sent words. He drank from Josiah, and Chris shared the last mortal thoughts, and the wonderful gift from Josiah of that last sunrise seen through his mortal eyes.

He watched as Vin offered his own throat in return to the blood-drained man, feeling the strength ebb from his lover along with his life-blood, trusting in Vin to know when the time was right to push Josiah away. He watched as both collapsed to the hard, dusty ground, seeing Josiah curl up in a fetal position as the Vampire-changed blood coursed through his veins.

Buck released his hold and Chris raced towards Vin, offering his own throat to his weakened lover and sharing all that he had within him to sustain Vin. He felt the strength of their bond increase, felt the pleasure of the sharing bleed across the link and he rejoiced, knowing that Buck was watching over Josiah during his change from mortal to Vampire.

It was done, and now they were Four.

****

Josiah sighed deeply as the credits rolled on the film he had been watching with his family. Louis had discovered this IMAX film and raced to inform his brothers, knowing how much Vin had also missed the sunrise and sunset since becoming one of them. And so they sat, side by side in a row of seats inside the IMAX theater, gazing in Technicolor wonder as the sun rose majestically over the Sonora Desert.

"Beautiful!" He exclaimed as he felt Vin's hand tighten over his own.

"Damn! So damn beautiful."

They watched the same feature for ten nights in a row, always awed by that one small scene of something mortal man took for granted but that was denied to them.

Josiah looked along the row of seats, seeing faces that he knew as intimately as his own after so many decades together. JD was still wide-eyed with boyish enthusiasm, and Ezra still taken aback by the sights he had long forgotten, but then, he had never been one to witness a sunrise or sunset except under duress even in the past anyway. Nathan had a beaming smile as he clasped Ezra's hand tightly, and Josiah snorted at the thought that it had taken _death_ for them to realize how much they loved each other.

Josiah looked to his sire, and to his sire's eternal companion, seeing the way their heads tilted towards one another, and bodies leaned towards each other as they shared this most precious gift of modern technology.

There was a time when he would have felt bitterness and envy at their closeness, wishing that Vin would look at him with the same love-filled, azure blue eyes, but Josiah knew that he would never resent the love they shared, even if they all lived to eternity. They belonged together--heart and soul--and he felt doubly blessed to be a part of that love... forever.

THE END


End file.
